Reminder alerts improve vaccination adherence among IBD patients
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A quality improvement intervention increased vaccination adherence among patients with inflammatory bowel disease on immunosuppressive therapy, according to research presented at the Crohn’s and Colitis Congress.
“Immunosuppressive therapy has really altered the course of inflammatory bowel disease in terms of prognosis and treatment,” Tony M. Cheng, MD, of the department of internal medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, said. “Inflammatory bowel disease patients at baseline have an increased risk for many of the vaccine-preventable illnesses, such as shingles, and once they are placed on these immunosuppressive therapies, this risk only increases.”
Cheng and colleagues reviewed the vaccination records of 55 IBD patients on immunosuppressive therapy, aged 28 to 85 years, who had either Crohn’s disease (63%) or ulcerative colitis (37%). Those who were not up to date on vaccinations received reminder calls from health care providers and were offered vaccination appointments. Researchers compared vaccination rates before and after a 6-month intervention period and observed significantly improved vaccination adherence for shingles (22% vs. 65%) and COVID-19 (20% vs. 65%) as well as modest improvements for hepatitis B (78% vs. 87%), influenza (69% vs. 85%), pneumococcal 13 (72% vs. 84%) and pneumococcal 23(62% vs. 78%).
“Our next step is to integrate a warning for providers regarding when patients are up to date or when patients are deficient of certain vaccines,” Cheng said. “We want to share this intervention, because it really is a simple practice that can be adopted by other providers who treat patients with immunosuppressive agents and can increase vaccination rates in these patients to improve wellness and health.”
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Cheng TM. Poster P011. Presented at: Crohn’s and Colitis Congress; Jan. 20-22, 2022 (virtual meeting).
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